Parliament holds extraordinary session – LIVE
11:00, 7 July 2022
YEREVAN, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS. The extraordinary session, which was convened in the Parliament yesterday, resumed today.
The lawmakers will continue debating a number of bills at second hearing.
[see video]
MINSK, 8 July (BelTA) – Companies from Belarus will take part in the exhibition in Armenia in September, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belinterexpo exhibition company at the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BelCCI).
The regional universal trade & industrial forum Armenia Expo will be held in Yerevan on 16-18 September. Belarus will traditionally take part in the event and bring a representative official delegation.
The exhibition has a wide range of thematic sections: mechanical engineering, petrochemicals, construction, interior design, transport, cargo transportation, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, woodworking, financial services, tourism and recreation. In 2022, the exhibition will draw more than 170 companies, associations, unions and organizations. Among the participating countries are Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Georgia, India, Iran, China, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and Czechia.
In 2021, eleven Belarusian enterprises of the food industry and mechanical engineering took part in the exhibition. They showcased meat and dairy products, beverages, confectionery, and also agricultural machines: fodder and grain harvesters and many more. Enterprises concluded a number of contracts to supply products to Armenia.
The Belarusian exposition at the 21st installment of Armenia Expo in Yerevan has been organized by the Belinterexpo exhibition company at the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BelCCI) with the support of the Embassy of Belarus in Armenia.
Armenian MP Gegham Manukyan of the opposition Hayastan alliance on Monday pressed the EU Delegation in Armenia on its failure to speak about human rights violations in the country over the past four years.
Speaking at a protest held by the resistance movement outside the EU Delegation office in central Yerevan, he accused employees of the organization of turning a blind eye to the incumbent authorities’ unlawful conduct, pressure on Armenian courts and political persecutions against opposition activists ordered by them.
Demonstrators gathered outside the EU office holding photos of activists arrested during the protests in Yerevan, as well as a photo of EU Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin and the former acting head of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), Gagik Jhangiryan, sitting side by side.
“By remaining silent, they have turned this building into a shameful place,” the oppositionist said.
He urged the EU Delegation members to be “honest” with the EU headquarters in Brussels.
“Tell them that dignified citizens of Armenia are shaming you for supporting dictatorship, remaining silent to the beatings of protesters near the EU Delegation office a few weeks ago as well as the arrests of hundreds of citizens,” Manukyan said.
"The leadership of the delegation must be changed urgently so that the attitude towards the structure changes as well," he added.
The Deputy Minister of IDPs, Labor, Health and Social Protection from the occupied territories of Georgia met with the delegation of the Republic of Armenia.
The Deputy Minister of IDPs, Labor, Health and Social Protection from the occupied territories of Georgia met with the delegation of the Republic of Armenia.
Tamila Barkalaya introduced Georgia’s experience to her colleagues on the issues of prevention of violence against women and domestic violence.
Deputy Ministers of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia, Tatevik Stefaniani, Anna Zhamakochiani and other representatives of government agencies participated in the official meeting.
Along with them, Meri Maglaferidze, director of the state care and assistance agency for victims of trafficking, and Lasha Jinjikhadze, deputy director, also participated in the meeting.
As Tamila Barkalaya noted, her colleagues shared the experiences of state agencies working on issues of violence against women and domestic violence. They also discussed the changes made in the legislation of the ratification and post-ratification of the Istanbul Convention, tools for assessing the risk of domestic violence, methods of collecting and analyzing data related to violence victims’ support services, gender-based and sexual violence, inter-agency coordination and other issues.
The workshop was held within the framework of the project “EU for Gender Equality: Technical Group on Reforms”, mandated by NIRAS of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Policy (DGNEAR).
ArmInfo. The Artsakh authorities must think of the fate of the Aghavno and Berdzor residents, Gegham Stepanyan, Human Rights Defender of Artsakh, said.
According to the information at his disposal, the Aghavno residents will be resettled in Hin Shen and Mets Shen, Nagorno-Karabakh, if the alternative highway is put into operation.
"Berdzor residents will be involved in the same programmes as other displaced persons. They will be provided with housing in Armenia," Mr Stepanyan said. No evacuation of the local residents is taking place now.
At a recent online conference, Armenia's Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated that new road that would be an alternative to the Lachin corridor is under construction. Under the trilateral agreement of November 9, 2020, during three years, with the parties consent, the corridor route is to be changed. As a result, the territories beyond the boundaries of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region will become part of Azerbaijan. The route will be changed to ensure more reliable highway service between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
"We are solving the Berdzor residents' problems by means of government decisions. Of course, the population must be provided with housing. As regards Ahavno, the Artsakh government can resolve the villagers' problems," the premier said. The route will be changed after Russian troops establish control over the new route. The corridor must be under Russian peacekeepers' full control, Mr Pashinyan said.
The Armenian parliament leadership affiliated with the ruling Civil Contract party will soon discuss stripping opposition lawmakers boycotting parliament sessions of their seats, Speaker Alen Simonyan told reporters on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, he said the parliament majority is “divided” on the matter.
"We are going to discuss both within the faction and the board whether or not to strip opposition MPs of their seats, since the law provides such an opportunity. There are two points of view on this matter. Some believe that the opposition has already stripped itself of its mandates in one way or another. I myself do not imagine how our colleagues can return to this hall after setting the bar so high and failing,” he said.
"But there is a second point of view, which boils down to the need to "finish off" what they have done. But it all depends on the outcome of the debates,” Simonyan said.
He said at least 10 opposition lawmakers may be formally accused of absenteeism.
Syria's Ambassador to Armenia Dr. Nora Arisian (left) meets with Catholicos Karekin II
Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians, met with the newly appointed Ambassador of Syria to Armenia Dr. Nora Arisian at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin on Monday.
According to the Etchmiadzin press service, the Catholicos congratulated Arisian on her appointment and expressed hope that her tenure will further strengthen the “centuries-old” relations between the Syrian and Armenian people.
The pontiff also emphasized the important role the Armenian community in Syria plays in strengthening ties between the two countries.
During the meeting, the Catholicos of All Armenians referred to the tragic losses and devastation caused by terrorist attacks in Syria and the 44-day war in Artsakh, expressing confidence that “the two friendly nations will overcome the challenges they face with a spirit of optimism and strong faith.”
Arisian briefed the Catholicos about the difficulties facing the Armenian community due to the conflict in Syria, confirming that the Syrian authorities are making every effort to improve the situation of the Armenian community. The Ambassador also emphasized the role of the Syrian-Armenian community in overcoming the current challenges in Syria, which has always been highly appreciated in the country.
Lilit Martirosyan continues to campaign for a hate crime law, legal gender recognition and transgender health care
There has been no legislation passed for LGBTIQ rights in Armenia since leading trans activist Lilit Martirosyan’s historic speech to the National Assembly in 2019 – but, she argues, at least she has brought some visibility to the country’s transgender and gay communities.
“After my speech, Nikol Pashinyan’s government started to speak more about LGBTIQ issues,” said Martirosyan. “[Former] governments never spoke about LGBTIQ people.”
Martirosyan is the founder of the Right Side, a non-governmental transgender and sex workers’ rights group in Yerevan. On 5 April 2019, she became the first out trans woman to speak in the Armenian parliament, calling for for an end to violence and discrimination towards trans people.
In response, she was met with online death threats, doxxing, and calls by parliamentarians to have her burned alive. When Martirosyan tried to report the threats to the police, they laughed at her, she said. Most health centres also turned her away when she sought treatment for the panic attacks she’d developed.
“After my speech at the National Assembly, everybody started recognising my face,” Martirosyan told openDemocracy in a video call from her apartment in Yerevan. “I started receiving hate messages not only on my social media platforms, but on the streets, in shops, and other places.”
Nowadays, to avoid public harassment, she wears a mask whenever she steps foot outside her home, even though COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted in Yerevan.
Though awareness about transgender people in Armenia has increased thanks to her speech, living openly as a trans activist remains extremely hard in this conservative country. Nevertheless, Martirosyan refuses to leave.
“Of course, I can take my passport and go to different European countries or to the US, but my community is here,” she said. “Transgender people, especially transgender women, are in a bad situation here.”
Martirosyan stresses the urgent need for a hate crime law, legal gender recognition and access to trans health care in Armenia.
There is no legal definition of ‘hate crime’ in Armenian law. As a result, law enforcement agencies don’t collect data about such crimes. Out of 113 incidents of harassment against LGBTIQ people in the last two years, only 27 cases were reported to the police, but none of them was considered a hate crime, according to a survey by the Right Side.
Acknowledging the potential for human rights violations, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Equality and Non-Discrimination last year recommended that Armenia adopt effective legislation and “policies to strengthen action against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender _expression_ and sexual characteristics”.
The lack of protection against discrimination and harassment in the workplace makes earning a living difficult for transgender people in the country. Many, Martirosyan included, get into sex work to provide an income.
“I have a lot of transgender friends doing sex work,” she explained. She provides psychological and legal support for sex workers at the Right Side. “[Clients] say: ‘We’re tired of it, but we need money for the apartment because we don’t have any support from the government.’”
Martirosyan is also taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights in which an Armenian trans man’s application to correct his gender marker on his birth certificate from ‘female’ to ‘male’ was denied by Armenian courts. Currently, the Ministry of Justice requires paperwork proving a trans person’s sex-reassignment surgery – a medical intervention that’s outlawed in Armenia and costly to do abroad, and which not everyone wants to go through.
“It’s a big problem, because there are transgender people who don’t want sex reassignment surgery,” Martirosyan explained. She was the first trans woman in Armenia to legally change her name on her passport in 2015. She changed the gender marker to ‘F’ in 2021.
Access to hormone treatment is also a problem in the country. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some Russian and Ukrainian trans refugees who fled to Yerevan sought support from the Right Side. Martirosyan regrets that she couldn’t direct them to gender-affirming healthcare, including access to hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
In January 2021, the Right Side provided at least 18 trans people with free video consultations with a Ukrainian endocrinologist and hormone therapy. However, Martirosyan reported that the pilot project came to a halt shortly after funding by the European Union and other organisations ran out.
On 7 June, the Right Side filed a complaint with the Human Rights Defender’s Office and the Commission on TV and Radio of Armenia to remove a television show, which it said “intensifies public hatred towards transgender people”.
In the third episode of the series, “Hatucum. Korupcia 2”, (“Corruption 2. Retribution”) a police chief calls trans people derogatory slurs such as “dregs”, saying they deserved to be “thrown in jail” and “beaten”, according to the statement by the Right Side.
But there is a wider political context. The series is broadcast by Yerkir Media, a television station affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Opposition-led protests by the ARF and two parties of former presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan have been taking place in Yerevan.
Demonstrators have been calling on Pashinyan to step down over his handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, his ongoing peace negotiations with Azerbaijan and opening the border with Turkey.
Martirosyan is wary of the unrest. “Right now it’s very dangerous because the [former] government is using LGBTIQ topics against Nikol Pashinyan’s government,” she said.
During the snap parliamentary elections in June 2021, one opposition MP told citizens not to participate in a rally organised by Pashinyan, saying doing so meant opposing the army and the church, and “supporting the LGBT community and traitors”, according to a report by Pink Armenia, an LGBTIQ group in Yerevan.
For Martirosyan, the hardest part of her job as an activist is raising awareness and changing societal attitudes about trans people in Armenia.
Her activism was rewarded in The Netherlands last year by the Red Umbrella Fund, a global fund for sex workers, and by the Human Rights Tulip, with a prize of 100,000 euros. Martirosyan says she used the money to buy bigger office space for the Right Side in Yerevan.
“Maybe after ten or more years things will change,” she said. “We will continue to work even though it’s dangerous for us.”
ArmInfo.Artsakh can never be part of Azerbaijan, and the official Stepanakert has repeatedly spoken about this. This was announced on June 20 at the presentation of the book "The Karabakh conflict and the foreign policy of the Republic of Artsakh" by NKR Foreign Minister David Babayan.
According to him, both the Armenian people and official Yerevan are also well aware of this. "We will stand to the last and never allow our red lines to be crossed," he said.
Touching upon the issue of the future status of Artsakh, Babayan pointed to its complexity. "The Karabakh conflict is one of the most difficult in the world, it can probably be equated to the Palestinian-Israeli one in terms of difficulty. We cannot expect a quick settlement. It will not be possible to reach a settlement in a short time, so you need to be realistic and understand that the final settlement is a task of the distant future," Babayan said, calling in this vein to protect and defend Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to him, there are all possibilities for this. "Consequently, if there is no comprehensive settlement, Artsakh will continue to maintain its status as a de facto independent and sovereign state, and then we'll see," the head of the foreign ministry said.
To clarify whether this issue is being discussed now, Babayan admitted that the issue of status is not being discussed now. The head of the NKR Foreign Ministry noted that of course, they want a speedy settlement of the conflict, but at the same time, the red line for them is that they will have nothing to do with Azerbaijan in this issue in any way or depend on it.
Speaking about the negotiation process, the head of the NKR Foreign Ministry noted that one should remember that "we face a state in which hatred towards Armenians is being planted."
At the same time, he expressed his conviction that the Armenians need to learn a lot from the enemy, who has a very organized approach to many issues. "You know, it is not so easy to take such bold steps. We have lost about 80% of our state. Remember the massacre of 1915. And what, did the Turks and Azerbaijanis repent of something? Do you expect Azerbaijan to change overnight? Especially when they see how certain circles are scourging Russia," he said.
Referring to the statements of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan from the rostrum of the Parliament regarding Artsakh, where the security of the population of Artsakh was indicated as a key factor, and not its status, Babayan noted that he has no idea what any leader of Armenia can think, and even more so take steps to make Artsakh a part of Azerbaijan.
"I don't want to believe in this. As for rights and freedoms, we have no future as part of Azerbaijan. I will give you a good example. The poor fellows kept in the Auschwitz concentration camp , also had "rights and freedoms" – they had the right to sleep – one hour, and the right to walk, were free in their barracks – to roll over from side to side in their beds. These are also "rights and freedoms". But the future in Azerbaijan, is even worse than this," he said, emphasizing that they will continue to preserve their de facto independence.
At the same time, speaking about a comprehensive settlement, Babayan stated that the peace treaty should be signed by Artsakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia, and if something does not suit Baku in this format, then everything will remain as it is now de facto, and de jure it's all a matter of time.
"But, de facto, we do not see ourselves as part of Azerbaijan, what should we negotiate with them about. They closed this page for themselves, and we closed it," the NKR Foreign Minister said, adding that the Armenian authorities have not officially stated that Artsakh should become part of Azerbaijan, and this is not acceptable.
According to him, even if the world says that Artsakh should do this, they will not take this step, they cannot be forced to do so.
"Then it's better to die with dignity in the struggle than to become a slave who is constantly raped," said the head of the Foreign Ministry.
Regarding the lowering of the bar, Babayan noted that what kind of bars are in question, only red lines remained. "We have only one red line left – the status, what levels can we talk about. If we lower the bar, then Azerbaijan is moving forward step by step. We do not see ourselves as part of Azerbaijan. This is a fact," he said, adding that Artsakh society is united in this issue.
At the same time, he urged not to blame anyone for what happened to the Armenian people throughout its history. According to the head of the NKR Foreign Ministry, "Armenians themselves are to blame for all their troubles."
A consultation chaired by Arayik Harutyunyan, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister of Armenia, was held Tuesday to discuss the construction of a sports complex to ne named after Armenian professional boxer and a multiple-time world champion, Arthur Abraham (Avetik Abrahamyan).
Abraham also attended this consultation, the government of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.
According to the Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister, the construction of this sports complex named after the aforesaid famous athlete in Yerevan by the government, and in cooperation with Arthur Abraham, is a continuation of the government's policy of having such sports complexes in various parts of Armenia.
Arayik Harutyunyan stressed that the construction of the sports complex especially in Shengavit district of the Armenian capital will be an important impetus for the development of both sports and this district.
Also, Harutyunyan gave relevant instructions to the heads of agencies in charge of this project.